I've received some good emails in response to "send me any positive economic stories" but obviously it behooves me to post the most audacious. Some things are indeed quite recession proof. I thought Hooters had some outfits but it appears Bone Daddy's, and Twin Peaks (knock off brands) are really going for the gusto. They really do do it bigger (ahem) in Texas. It appears the key at Twin Peaks is having a big fish and not being afraid to use it.Via ABC News (full video on the site, cannot embed it)
- The restaurant chain Hooters had the market cornered when it came to affordable food and a scantily clad, attractive wait staff. Lately, however, competition is, well, busting out all over the place. Imitation chains such as Twin Peaks and Bone Daddy's are both flourishing, as is the original.
- While the downturn in the economy has forced many chain restaurants to close, Hooters brought in a billion dollars in sales in 2008, a 2 percent increase from 2007. "Business is good," said Mike Herrick, the company's vice president. "It's the great escape ... You come here when you get a job, you come here when you get a pink slip."
- "You walk around today and you wouldn't know we are in our worst time since the '30s. ...
You wouldn't know that in Hooters today," he said. - Brittany Johnson, who works as a waitress at a Hooters in South Arlington, Texas, said, "Honestly, the reason people come here and they don't stop coming here is because of the economy. They have so much on their mind ... they want to get away. They might not have the money to go to Florida or California, so they go to a nice environment like this and talk to nice girls like us."
- And it's not just dads. A lot of moms show up, too. Hooters says more than 30 percent of its customers are women, drawn in part by a menu where it's tough to find anything costing more than $10.
- That may explain why down the street from the Hooters franchise in South Arlington you'll find Bone Daddy's, where the women wear even less and serve up a similar menu of food and flirtation.
- Leatherwood expects that each Bone Daddy's location will bring in more than $6 million in 2009. "This restaurant has been insanely busy from the minute we opened," said the bartender, Allison Bingham, 22. "I don't think [the recession is] affecting us. I think the way we take care of people, the atmosphere, nobody else can do what we do, and I think that's what sells, and I think people set out a budget to what they do and then they come spend it here."
- "What we are doing is putting on two shows a day ... we got a show called 'lunch' and one called 'dinner,'" he said. "I'm the producer, the manager on the floor is the director. It's an amazing ensemble cast that comes to perform every day. The only difference is there are no lines. ... It's all ad-libbed and the audience sits on stage with us."
- Marketing experts say these restaurants are so successful in the sluggish economy because they've earned their own name. "This category is becoming known as breastaurants," said Drew Neisser of Renegade Marketing Group. "And I think that says it all. It's food and it's sex appeal and it seems to be recession-proof."
- "The target here are the 'man boys,' sort of adolescents who are trying to stay young," he said. "They want to be with the guys, very into bonding and going to a restaurant where there is something to talk about ... something to look at it. Keep everything on the surface and just have fun ... just have some 'yuks,' and right now having some 'yuks' is a pretty darn good thing."
- Ironically, Twin Peaks is expanding so quickly because so many other chains have been forced out of business. A Twin Peaks in Bedford, Texas used to be a Ruby Tuesdays.
- The sort of overt sexuality onstage at Bone Daddy's certainly brings in the men, and it doesn't seem to drive away the women. Further proof that sexy still sells, even when not much else does.
